Author

Date of Award

Document Type

Degree Name

Department

Biomedical Engineering

First Advisor

Tara L. Alvarez

Second Advisor

Michael T. Bergen

Third Advisor

Richard J. Servatius

Fourth Advisor

David S. Kristol

Abstract

Diagnostic ultrasound employs pulsed, high frequency sound waves that are reflected back from body tissues and processed by ultrasound receivers to create characteristic images in varied applications such as cardiology, obstetrics and gynecology neurology and urology. Ultrasound intensity is primarily affected by the changes in acoustic impedance of the medium. Literature on ultrasound indicates that the propagation of ultrasound increases gradually as the density increases from air to water. Such studies have been confined to only the three states of matter and have never discussed a fog medium.

The primary objective of this thesis study was to design a system in order to control the ultrasound transceivers in an artificially created fog atmosphere. The ultimate objective of this study is to construct a complete "Fog Imaging System", where a human subject can be completely scanned without the help of any conductive gel. The software controls the generation of "synthetic fog" atmosphere and the sequential triggering of ultrasound transducers. Reliability and accuracy of the data acquired was tested and verified. Densities versus intensity charts were drawn and the intensity of ultrasound was found to decrease with increasing densities of fog.